Moscow:
Attempts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine through a frenzy of telephone diplomacy failed to ease tensions on Saturday, with the White House insisting that Russia incur “quick and serious costs” if its troops launch an invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Western claims that such a move could be on the horizon, calling the idea “provocative speculation” that could lead to conflict in the ex-Soviet country, according to a Russian readout of a telephone conversation with the French President Emmanuel Macron.
Weeks of tensions that saw Russia nearly encircling its western neighbor with more than 100,000 troops intensified after Washington warned that an all-out invasion could begin “any day” and Russia launched its largest naval exercises across the Black Sea in years.
“If Russia invades Ukraine again, the United States, along with our Allies and partners, will react decisively and impose swift and heavy charges on Russia,” US President Joe Biden told Putin, the White House said.
While the United States was ready to engage in diplomacy, “we are equally prepared for other scenarios,” Biden said, as the two nations face one of the most serious crises in East-West relations since the Cold War.
While the talks between Biden and Putin were “professional and substantive” and lasted just over an hour, they “made no fundamental change” in the dynamics, a senior US official told reporters.
The Russian Defense Ministry added to the feverish atmosphere by announcing that it had chased out a US submarine that it said had entered territorial waters near the Kuril Islands in the North Pacific.
The ministry said it had summoned the US defense attaché in Moscow about the incident, while the Pentagon said it was only aware of press releases.
Putin started his afternoon with talks with Macron that lasted an hour and 40 minutes, according to the French presidency.
Macron’s office said “both expressed a desire to continue the dialogue” but, like Washington, reported no clear progress.
– ‘Possible provocations’ –
Russia added to the ominous tone on Saturday by withdrawing some of its diplomatic personnel from Ukraine.
The Moscow Foreign Ministry said its decision was prompted by fears of “possible provocations from the Kiev regime”.
But Washington and a host of European countries, along with Israel, cited the growing threat of a Russian invasion as they called on their citizens to leave Ukraine as soon as possible.
Britain and the United States also withdrew most of their remaining military advisers, while the US embassy ordered “most” of Kiev’s employees to leave.
Dutch airline KLM has announced that it is suspending commercial flights to Ukraine until further notice.
The prospect of fleeing Westerners prompted Kiev to appeal to its citizens to “keep calm”.
“At the moment, panic is the greatest enemy of the people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a visit to troops stationed near the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula.
Several thousand Ukrainians braved the winter cold to march through Kiev in a show of unity amid growing fears of war.
“There’s no point in panic,” student Maria Shcherbenko said as the crowd waved Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flags and sang the national anthem. “We must unite and fight for independence.”
– ‘Every moment’ –
Washington issued its most dire warning yet on Friday that Russia had amassed enough troops to launch a serious attack.
“Our view that military action could happen any moment now, and could happen before the end of the Olympics, is only getting stronger in terms of robustness,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned.
US military reviewers had previously said the Kremlin may want to wait until the Beijing Winter Olympics end on February 20 before launching an offensive so as not to offend Russia’s ally China.
Ukrainian leaders have tried to water down the prospects of all-out war because of the damaging effect such fears had on the country’s shaky economy and public morale.
But mood across the country remained tense.
The Kiev mayor’s office announced that it had prepared an emergency evacuation plan for the capital’s three million residents as a precaution.
Sullivan on Friday stopped saying that the United States concluded that Putin made the decision to attack.
But some US and German media quoted intelligence sources and officials as saying a war could start at some point after Putin concluded talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow on Tuesday.
The German leader will travel to Kiev on Monday and then visit Putin, while Europe strives to keep communications with Moscow open.
Russia wants binding security guarantees from the West, including a pledge to roll NATO forces out of Eastern Europe and never expand into Ukraine.
Washington flatly rejected the demands, while offering to discuss a new European disarmament agreement with Moscow.
Sullivan also echoed his warnings that Russia was risking severe Western sanctions, saying NATO is now “more cohesive, targeted and dynamic than at any time in recent history”.
Germany’s Scholz has added his voice to Europe’s pledges to punish Russia with tough economic sanctions against its financial and energy sectors if it attacks.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)